The staff of The Opportunity Agenda is composed of a diverse group of professionals who, together, bring experience and expertise in the areas of communications, research, policy, advocacy, law, fundraising, and administration.

Leadership

  • Alan Jenkins, Executive Director, Co-Founder

    Alan Jenkins is Executive Director of The Opportunity Agenda, a communications, research, and policy organization dedicated to building the national will to expand opportunity for all. Before joining The Opportunity Agenda, Alan was Director of Human Rights at the Ford Foundation, managing over $50 million in grant making annually in the United States and eleven overseas regions. Previously, he served as Assistant to the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he represented the United States government in constitutional and other litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that, he was Associate Counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., where he defended the rights of low-income communities suffering from exploitation and discrimination.

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  • Janet Dewart Bell, Director of Communications

    Janet has been a communications and management consultant specializing in policy advocacy, strategic planning, executive and staff training, and education. She has been a key strategist and senior executive at a number of national organizations including PolicyLink, the National Urban League, and National Public Radio (NPR). While a Visiting Research Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, she developed and taught a course in Effective Advocacy.

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  • Jason P. Drucker, Ph.D., Director of Development and Operations

    Jason P. Drucker is the Director of Development and Operations at The Opportunity Agenda. In that role, he serves as chief fundraiser; oversees finance, accounting, and human resources; and develops arts and culture work that integrates into social justice initiatives.

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  • Juhu Thukral, Director of Law and Advocacy

    Juhu Thukral is the Director of Law and Advocacy at The Opportunity Agenda. She has been an advocate for the rights of low-income and immigrant women in the areas of sexual health and rights, gender-based violence, economic security, and criminal justice for 20 years.

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Staff

  • Emily Accamando, Program Associate

    Emily has a diversity of experience coordinating efforts in community development and capacity-building. Most recently, as a Program Coordinator at a youth-empowerment organization, she managed a community-action program in several high schools, developing partnerships with local organizations to create opportunities for youth to make an impact in their communities. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru, Emily led a group of local residents in developing ecotourism as an approach to natural resource management and income generation. She authored a USAID grant and managed the construction and implementation of an Interpretation Center that served as the center of their conservation and organizing efforts.

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  • Cindy Lou Cuesta, Development Associate

    Cindy Lou first joined The Opportunity Agenda as a Health Equity Initiative Intern in 2006. She returned in 2011 as a Development Associate providing fundraising support with an emphasis on foundations and grants management. Her previous experience in the social justice realm includes working at Community Access Inc., which provides housing and services for people with psychiatric disabilities; serving as a domestic violence and substance abuse counselor in Philadelphia; and volunteering on two community renewal trips in particularly impoverished areas of the Philippines. After being awarded a grant by the Penn Institute for Urban Research, she also initiated and completed interdisciplinary research analyzing barriers to health for the elderly in underserved urban communities, results of which were published in The Journal of Research in Gerontological Nursing.

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  • Eleni Delimpaltadaki Janis, Public Opinion and Media Research Coordinator

    Eleni oversees the organization’s research operations and initiatives including public opinion, social science and media research.  She oversees the design of The Opportunity Agenda’s primary research projects and provides strategic consultation on public opinion research and communications projects for numerous social justice leaders and groups across the country. In addition to serving as deputy campaign manager for a number of New York State political campaigns, Eleni conducted extensive polling and built campaign strategies for legislative initiatives, and East Coast electoral candidates. On public policy issues, such as health care, labor standards and tax equity, she worked with labor unions and public policy groups, including the Business and Labor Coalition of New York (BALCONY), which she helped build, and served as Director of Research. Eleni is an American Express Fellow in the Emerging Nonprofit Women Leaders Program by the National Council for Research on Women (2010-2011) and Associate Membership Chair at the New York chapter of the American Association of Public Opinion Research. 

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  • Megan Haberle, Economic Opportunity Fellow & Associate Counsel

    Megan most recently served as an associate at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, where she focused on securities fraud and complex commercial litigation. Working in a pro bono capacity, she was instrumental in advocating for a Constitutional right of access to postconviction DNA testing within the Second Circuit. While at Columbia Law School, she worked with the Legal Aid Society’s Immigration Law Unit, the California Appellate Project, and Advancement Project, and participated in a rebuilding trip to New Orleans. Prior to law school, Megan was a paralegal at the American Civil Liberties Union, where she specialized in school-to-prison pipeline research, indigent defense reform, and racial profiling litigation. She has also worked as an English teacher in Daegu, Republic of Korea.

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  • Eva-Marie Malone, Communications Associate

    Eva-Marie provides strategic media relations and communications support for work done by The Opportunity Agenda focusing on an equitable economic recovery. Eva-Marie has extensive experience as a writer, graphic specialist, and web designer for small non-profits. Most recently, Eva-Marie was responsible for communications for the Pro Bono Institute.

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  • Jill Mizell, Public Opinion and Media Research Associate

    Jill Mizell started at The Opportunity Agenda as a Public Opinion Research and Communications Intern in 2009 and is now the Public Opinion and Media Research Associate. She has a Masters in Social Research from Hunter College, City University of New York, with her thesis focusing on the relationship between economic opportunity and subjective wellbeing. Previously, she interned with Demos, a public policy research and advocacy organization, assisting the Economic Opportunity Program with policy research on financial barriers to post-secondary education.

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  • Christopher Moore, Communications Associate

    Chris provides strategic media relations support, publications management, and coordination of many of the events and projects undertaken by the Communications Department. A former newspaper reporter, Chris has been working in nonprofit communications since 2005. Prior to joining The Opportunity Agenda he was the Director of Marketing and Communications for Safe Horizon, a nonprofit victims’ services agency in New York City.

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  • Ross Mudrick, Development Coordinator

    Ross has provided strategic development consulting to a wide variety of New York non-profits, including Northside Center for Child Development, Jewish Association for Services for the Aged (JASA), and Issue Project Room.  His background in advocacy and strategic communications includes work on campaign finance reform, young voter turnout, and a number of state and local electoral campaigns in San Francisco and Wisconsin.  

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  • Kisha Parks, Office and Fiscal Manager

    Kisha brings over ten years of experience in accounting, human resources and office administration in both the non-profit and private sectors to her new role at the Opportunity Agenda.  Kisha spent five years in Workplace Financial Services at JP Morgan Chase Bank before leaving to serve as Finance/Payroll Manager for the non-profit Dance Theater Workshop in Manhattan.  Most recently, she handled human resources and general accounting for a software development firm in Atlanta, Georgia.

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  • Betsy Theobald Richards, Creative Fellow

    As an arts administrator, theater director, and writer, Betsy has spent the last 20 years advocating for emerging and underserved voices in the arts. Most recently, she served as a Program Officer at the Ford Foundation in Media, Arts and Culture overseeing a national portfolio on indigenous and place-based arts organizations and cultural communities. Prior to that, she was the Director of Public Programs for the Pequot Museum, the country’s largest tribal museum and research center.

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  • Julie Rowe, Framing and Messaging Coordinator

    Julie has over ten years of experience working with non-profit groups on communication strategy, messaging, framing and media outreach. She has worked on issues ranging from affordable housing, community development, and family support to immigration and the arts. Julie also has experience managing brand development, public service announcement campaigns, opinion research, media research and analysis, and strategic communications planning.

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  • Zakeia Tyson, Executive and Administrative Assistant

    Zakeia joins The Opportunity Agenda as an Executive and Administrative Assistant. With a background in marketing and event planning, Zakeia’s experience has given her the ability to view emerging concepts from various perspectives. Raised in Harlem, New York and later moved to Atlanta, Georgia to attend Morris Brown College, Zakeia continued her studies at Georgia State University, where she earned a degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing; and later completed her Master in Business Administration from Ashford University.

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  • Robert Valencia, Web Strategist

    Robert brings more than five years of experience in communications, online strategies, and public advocacy. Most recently, he served as a communications consultant for Urban Strategies, where he coordinated the efforts of web maintenance and e-newsletter content. Previously, he joined the online communications team at the Center for American Progress, where he worked on an array of activities, including copyediting and web content management through CMS and CRM systems, social media administration, email and e-newsletter delivery, and the translation of web content for the Center’s version in Spanish.

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  • Annie J. Wang, Robert L. Carter Fellow and Associate Counsel

    Prior to joining The Opportunity Agenda, Annie was a partner within the immigration practice group of Wormser, Kiely, Galef & Jacobs LLP, where she focused on analyzing and advising on business immigration issues and assisting clients with developing strategies for immigration compliance. She co-chairs the Alumni Task Force of the American Immigration Council, where she served as a trustee and a member of its Community Education Center Committee.

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